The coach who led Olympiacos to a Turkish Airlines Euroleague and Greek league double this season had an important meeting to attend with the club owners, George and Panayiotis Aggelopoulos.

Only this discussion about next season's plans proved much shorter than the two brothers would have expected.

Ivkovic, who turns 69 in October, informed the owners that he did not wish to discuss an extension to his contract because he had decided to leave the club and concentrate on his job with the Serbian national team.

"We discussed the new situation that both Greek basketball and Olympiacos find themselves in and the strain that working at both the club and Serbia has put on me during the past three years," said Ivkovic in a press release.

There is a special bond between coach Ivkovic and the Piraeus club. They have both won two Euroleague titles, and they won them together.

The Serbian maestro had led Olympiacos to their first ever Euroleague title in 1997 and returned for a second spell in 2010, a move that ultimately led both to the top of Europe once again, last May.